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Blood Children
Not to be confused with Bloodrott The Blood Children, or Bloodott, are a Lobott-speaking ethnicity linked together not by race or by a common nation, but by the faith of the nameless children. Unlike other ethnicities, the history of the Blood Children is not mired in myths and legends of the ancient past, but rather is extremely well-documented. They are a significant minority in every nation of this Earth east of the Mountain Pass, and south of the Ayelands, save for the Sefenlands and the Six Dragon Kingdoms. This is not only because of their numbers, though it has been noted that their rate of reproduction is much higher than that of other ethnicities. It has much more to do with their political aspirations. They seek to spread the faith, and gain political power in order to fulfill several prophecies. To do this, they employ various tactics. They have many children, and practice polygamy so that family resources are evenly spread and that individual families are not burdened by the high number of children. They preach ambition, and get it into the minds of their children that anyone of them could be the Finder of the nameless child or even the next nameless child. More sinisterly, the faith seems to have an anomalous nature, and there are a high number of zealots in their ranks. Finally, the faith is incredibly martial, and acts almost as a nation-state, being able to field various armies and knightly organizations. History: Sir Albech Gaulstone was a veteran of the War of the Four. He was famed for his valor, and his skill. This was never documented, and he never said it aloud for fear of sounding boastful, but he was the very last soldier to surrender during the Siege of Vrankfort. His squad fought until they could not, all of them, to a man. He would spend over three years as a prisoner of war, in a time before war crimes had been designated. He was tortured, and very possibly went slightly mad, for after his torture, he began to see visions in the sky, and especially in the stars. He was not released, but rather escaped his confines. For his valor, he was made a knight, and given the rank of major. It is thanks to his leadership that two of the four major Vrankish victories during the war were won: the Battle Outside Kolonie, and Kalos' Reckoning (fought at the River Korrõs - the other two battles were the Smashing of the Gate at Gaulgarten, and the successful Siege of the Fearless Fort in Reynlenn). He credited his victories to the prophecies that the gods would give him. At the time, the Irri believed in gods not dissimilar to the Nine or to the lesser gods of the Faith of Anasia, and were much less spiritual than they would later become. Albech was an exception. He became a zealot, and attracted a large following. Immediately prior to the Battle at Vraenckorr, he abandoned his post, and led his people east, foretelling that the Vraenckorrians would lose the war because of a young woman. He believed then that his vision was metaphorical, and that most likely a young woman would arrive with some foul pestilence to strike the Vraenckorrians down. He did not envision that Vayess of the Walls, a young woman, would single-handedly strike down Vraenckorr. After this, he began to interpret his visions much more literally. He is retroactively considered the Finder of Vayess. His people marched east on foot, as his visions demanded. Over the Green Mountains of Eiharu, specifically Mount Gaulstone, as it has now been renamed, and bought by Blood Children, he saw a vision in the sky, and concluded that "the son of my blood will kill the King beyond the Mountain Pass." This is the most important prophecy in the entire faith, and all of their political aspirations are to fulfill it. Albech thought then that "the King" must by the Blue King of Sayerthenn, and in fact there are still many sects of Blood Children in Sayerthenn that believe exactly that. They operate mostly in secret, and have a large presence in Sukaar and especially Ugenkaar. Albech knew that this vision was different. Thirteen of his disciples had also seen it, and immediately prostrated themselves before him. In his own words, he said that he had experienced a divine epiphany. He dubbed those there the Bloodites, whence all the Blood Children can trace either their lineage or more likely, their conversion from. For nearly twenty years they slowly wandered to the Blue City of Sayerthenn, collecting converts, and most importantly, reproducing. Albech himself took on six wives, and ten concubines, and fathered over eighty sons and daughters. It was assumed that his first son, Elektros Gaulstone, would succeed him. And he was certainly capable, but it was not to be. Merely a minute before the Storm of Storms on Deer Isle, Albech died holding the hands of his fourth and favorite daughter, Haya Gaulstone. He died, and she immediately began having a seizure. She began glowing, and soon others, including many of her siblings, but not Elektros, began seeing what she was seeing. She was experiencing The Epiphany. Her first words upon waking were "a red leper will we replace the Blue King with." Immediately infighting broke out between Elektros' followers, and Haya's followers. This fighting spread to the streets, and the true scale of the Bloodott began making itself more obvious to the reigning Wet Blue King. Unfortunately for him, he never did quite learn of its true scale. The Bloodott had infiltrated Black Seahorse cells, and briefly cooperated to sow the seeds of the 4th Sayerthenner Civil War. This brief cooperation allowed for tempers to cool, and the cult went back into hiding its strength. The Wet Blue King forgot about them. Eventually, Haya made it clear that she no longer believed the Blue King to be of note. The rising star of Jeg Hohn, and her spies' confirmation of the blue mages' secret, that the Blue King is not truly immortal, made it clear to her, that she must continue on east. Elektros' followers remained in Sayerthenn, where Jeg Hohn had not forgotten. Haya travelled through Pyanjen, and saw many wonders there, but abhorred their boyfuckery and buggery and judged that they would all of them one day be punished. She needed to go further east. At this point in time, the Kinglands were barely legends to the Parthalenners. Many of her followers abandoned her on the several Kaathi island chains they landed on. Others still decided to head back to Sayerthenn, often finding themselves lost in some new country or another. When they landed in the Sefenlands, however, they would almost invariably end up enslaved. Finally she and her followers made two separate landfalls in the Kinglands; near Faark and near Afobes (they also made landfall in Rwohimorr just days later). She died that night, and named the son of Elektros, Dextros Gaulstone to be her successor. For centuries, the Blood Children would grow in the Kinglands, like a cancer spreading. The state was not centralized enough for it to ever have a chance of fully crushing them. They would fester, and they would grow, not in secret, but out in the open. There they consolidated strength, only occasionally interfering with the outside world. Until they found Messink. Before then, their biggest mark on "western" history was acts of defiance by missionaries of the Bloodott living within the 2nd Rainish Magickal Glory, who provided shelter for Redmem, and committed acts of terror against the populace, or even self-immolation. Several times they clashed in the streets with the purpleshirts and Hellseers. Nohth Nuj was but a young boy living in Lohth at the beginning of the 1st Great War, and he personally witnessed many of these "subversives" lay down their lives for others. In fact, his own father Sayergohn Jettermukn was beaten to death in any alley by the Hellseer's second in command, and his cronies, Lohtish Griefolon Nukatt. Nuj personally witnessed this from a distance, and Griefolon became aware of him. Griefolon was instructed psychically by the Child With Many Names to spare the boy on the direct orders of the Shadow. Nuj fled, and survived by wandering the Glory, never staying anywhere to long to rouse suspicion of subversive ties or his very real homelessness. Near the war's end, however, he had amounted many connections in the glory, and had amassed a small wealth, which he used to arm the Bloodott, and members of the Yellow Coalition. He was in Reynlenn during the Rape of Reynlenn when the Glorious Emperor fled, and left his people behind at the mercy of angry Anasicmen, Coldlanders, Sefenlanders, Harishmen, and Sayerthenners. Nuj witnessed atrocity after atrocity, and most of it coming from his side. He was disgusted in himself, and began his transformation into a zealot. He began to believe that the unfaithful nations were doomed, and the only way for them to be saved was by converting the people of the world. He prayed to the nameless gods that he would be the next finder, to mold, raise, and guide the next nameless child. Billow died, and along came Sai Hu Hei Hun Hairas, who was never "found," and died at the height of the Topok Rebellion at the hands of Sefenlander Emperor Sadei Hairas. Upon Sai's death, Nuj felt in his heart that a new nameless child had been born. He had been wandering Doronkonlenn for decades at that point, and had become a very old man, and he was no longer fit to raise a child, but he walked all the way to White-Sphinx simply to gaze upon Messink, the child of destiny, fated to shroud the world in his wings. "My brothers... I see something. I see a white sphinx, spinning a wheel painted in blood with its claws, and the blood is rising up, and the sphinx is becoming red. The wheel is the world, and its wings cover the whole of it, first white and now red, oh so very red." He went on his own, and although no one has documented it, Nuj laid down his own life so that Messink might live. He sacrificed himself, burning high, and preventing an attempted massacre of newborns on the part of Sadei, who similarly feared Sai reincarnating. A lordling named Wermes Castaia, participating in the rebellion, found the newborn, seemingly the only victim of the fire, as everyone else had fled. The child was unburned, and cooed lovingly at him. Wermes sensed something momentous and magickal about the child, and sent him off with his men, spiriting him away to the Slayers' Guild, whom he believed to be the highest magickal authorities in the world. Nuj left behind a note that went unread for six years, until it was happened upon by chance. At this point, the Blood Children of the Kinglands were restless, and needed proof of a new nameless child. Several frauds had arisen, and several factions had come about. A massive civil war was brewing. There was, however, something anomalous about the note. It compelled those who read it to believe in it wholeheartedly. Its properties became apparent to anyone who read it or who witnessed someone read it. Soon, there were but two factions, the readers, and the unread. The note simply read: "He will be found in the land of gold, and bravery untold." Obviously this steered the children into thinking that he would be found somewhere in the Sefenlands, and this is consistent with what Nuj had said before his death. The Blood Children investigated his death, and found records of a missing, and presumably deceased babe at the orphanage. For nearly a decade, nothing could be done with this information. Things changed, however, when Wermes Castaia, now in exile and living in the Kinglands, finally converted to the faith. Immediately he made the highest ranking members of the faith aware that he had been at that orphanage, and had sent the babe to live with the Slayers' Guild. Messink was a rebellious fifteen year old, and had taken a keen interest in the Undoing of Pyanjen, an event which he strongly suspected the Slayers' Guild either perpetrated or was covering up for someone else. He was a studious boy, with an interest in politics, and magicks. One day he stole a magickal halberd, which seemingly called to him, and it dubbed itself To the Truth in Sefenlander Script. Messink had become aware of wyzards hoarding illegal knowledge in the City Around the Great Pyramid of the Badlands, and travelled down there up from the Slayers' Hold in nearby Mount Beles. There he was kidnapped by Blood Children, who had finally come to realize that the "land of gold, and bravery untold" was Pilat, not the Sefenlands. They took him to the Kinglands. They told him everything about his past, and about the harsh rule of Sadei Hairas. They told him about their vast armies, and showed him how they operated in secret, and out of the view of the King at Kingtonne. He was introduced to Wernes Castaia, whom Messink remembered visiting him a few times in his childhood. Finally, they told him that the halberd had previously belonged to Billow the Slave, and most likely had origins in Aye the Queen. Messink already had high hopes, and even political aspirations. He believed that it was possible for him to become a lord in the Coldlands, but this far surpassed any of his ambitions. He asked to see the note. It fell apart before his gaze, and he now had vast powers of persuasion. When people would look upon him, it would be very difficult to resist his commands. Over the next year, he would have armies mobilized, and plans drawn up for the invasion of the Sefenlands. The invasion of the Sefenlands was hugely successful, and was over in just a few short months. On CC: 13/9/4,863 Messink marched his army through Hairaerz, and arrested Sadei Hairas. A morning storm delayed Sadei's execution by several hours, and mirrored how it was sunny the morning of Sai's execution, and began raining just before he was killed. The sun broke through during the execution, and over 20,000 people witnessed Messink bring down his halberd on Sadei's nape. Messink began proselytizing his new faith to the people, and it began to take hold. Ymetros Gaulstone, leader of the faith then handed him Sadei's sangahalk, and begged of him to crown himself emperor of the Sefenlands.Category:Peoples Category:History